3 surprising trouble spots for Padres that are already hard to ignore

We are officially through two series thus far in the Padres' season, and their record sits at 2–5. It was always known that 2026 was going to be a transition year for the NL West ballclub, but as of right now, things do not seem to be going great.

The hope for San Diego is to contend for a Wild Card spot with the way the division seems to be panning out, but even that is a stretch. There are three trends so far that have, and will continue to hurt the Padres trajectory.

3 surprising flaws already making life harder for Padres

Back of the lineup troubles

No one is expecting the back of the order of any team to do significant damage; in fact, it's quite the opposite expectation. However, the Padres seven, eight, and nine hitters have combined to not contribute anything positive to what has been a terrible start to the season.

Primarily manned by Gavin Sheets, Jake Cronenworth, and Luis Campusano, the seven-through-nine hitters are hitting a dismal .160, which is just not going to cut it.

Back-end starting pitching

This issue is way more obvious, as the Padres' rotation will be in a world of hurt for the vast majority of 2026. Nick Pivetta and Michael King have been fine thus far to anchor the front, but the back has done no favors thus far.

Germán Márquez (0–1) has started one game and has an ERA of 12.00. Meanwhile, Walker Buehler (0–1) also has a single start to his name with an ERA of 6.75. This type of production will not cut it, especially considering both of these terrible outings came at Petco Park, which is, for the most part, pitcher-friendly.

Xander Bogaerts

Padres fans knew this was the case, but they will still put every ounce of hate into it. Xander Bogaerts so far in 2025 is 4-for-24 (.167) with an OPS+ of 16 (84% worse than the league-average hitter). Now, in year four of the massive 11-year, $280 million contract, we are just watching one of the worst deals of all time unfold right in front of our eyes.

It seems as if this is the intro to what will be another very rough ride for Padres fans on the Xander Bogaerts express.

It is still very early in the season, and while it is right to panic just a little bit, there is still plenty of time to figure this out. On the plus side, this is a great experience for Craig Stammen to get his feet wet and (hopefully) get the ship back on track.